I’ll be honest I don’t really get the appeal of Risotto, it’s one of the items on a menu that I never order (squishies on the other hand zeroes in on Risotto like there’s no tomorrow). So upon hearing that Risotto was this month’s challenge I wasn’t overly enthusiastic about it all and spent a good few days racking my brain to try find a way to challenge myself. Linda and Howie’s latest posts about Japan have gotten me back into a Japanese mood and I decided to incorporate this into this month’s challenge.

I present, Dashi Risotto with Assorted Asian Mushrooms topped with Seared Scallop and Inoki.

The Risotto itself

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Read the rest of Daring Cooks, Risotto (837 words)

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I’ve been slacking off a little when it comes to the Daring Cooks challenges, a combination of laziness, lack of time and lack of inspiration meant that I’d been skipping the past few months. However the timing for this month’s challenge was perfect as I needed to provide a quick and easy side dish for our New Years Eve BBQ party, Pork Satay was a great dish for me to prepare ahead of time without having to worry too much on the day.

The satay marinade chosen is Thai based in flavours and luckily thanks to a previous Daring Cooks challenge had almost all of the spices required tucked away my cupboard. Conscious that we already had an abundance of meat available for the night’s celebrations (Hellooooo Suckling Pig!), I kept the portion sizes low and made 2 batches of satay, one pork and one beef.

Pork Satay

In an effort to spice up the marinade I upped the portions of Ginger, threw in some extra fish sauce and a few chillis for good measure. While I thoroughly enjoyed the marinated meat finding it flavourful and tender, I was rather disappointed with the accompanying Peanut sauce recipe provided. The usage of peanut butter was utterly bizarre to me and I found myself missing the crunch and flavour of peanuts. I would definitely use the marinade recipe again, but in the future would look for a peanut sauce recipe which involves crushing fresh peanuts for that added flavour and texture.

Pork Satay with Peanut Sauce

Satay Marinade

• 1/2 small onion, chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, crushed
• 1 T ginger root, chopped (optional) (2 cm cubed)
• 2 T lemon juice (1 oz or 30 mls)
• 1 T soy sauce (0.5 oz or 15 mls)
• 1 tsp ground coriander (5 mls)
• 1 tsp ground cumin (5 mls)
• 1/2 tsp ground turmeric (2-2.5 mls)
• 2 T vegetable oil (or peanut or olive oil) (30 mls)
• 1 pound of pork (loin or shoulder cuts) (16 oz or 450g)

1. If you have a food processor or blender, dump in everything except the pork and blend until smooth. Lacking a food processor, I prefer to chop my onions, garlic and ginger really fine then mix it all together in a medium to large bowl.
2. Cut pork into 1 inch strips.
3. Cover pork with marinade. You can place the pork into a bowl, cover/seal and chill, or place the whole lot of it into a ziplock bag, seal and chill.
4. If using wooden or bamboo skewers, soak your skewers in warm water for at least 20 minutes before preparing skewers.
5. Gently and slowly slide meat strips onto skewers.
6. Broil or grill at 290°C/550° F (or pan fry on medium-high) for 8-10 minutes or until the edges just start to char. Flip and cook another 8-10 minutes.

Peanut Sauce

• 3/4 cup coconut milk (6 oz or 180 mls)
• 4 Tbsp peanut butter (2 oz or 60 mls)
• 1 Tbsp lemon juice (0.5 oz or 15 mls)
• 1 Tbsp soy sauce (0.5 oz or 15 mls)
• 1 tsp brown sugar (5 mls)
• 1/2 tsp ground cumin (2.5 mls)
• 1/2 tsp ground coriander (2.5 mls)
• 1-2 dried red chilies, chopped (keep the seeds for heat)

1. Mix dry ingredients in a small bowl. Add soy sauce and lemon, mix well.
2. Over low heat, combine coconut milk, peanut butter and your soy-lemon-seasoning mix. Mix well, stir often.
3. All you’re doing is melting the peanut butter, so make your peanut sauce after you’ve made everything else in your meal, or make ahead of time and reheat.

And just because one post isn’t really enough to showcase a Suckling Pig in all it’s glory, just a few more gratuitous pictures to stroke your memory.

Suckling Pig Montage, nomnomnom

They say that what you do on New Years day reflects what the rest of your year is going to look like. In that case it looks like I’m going be relaxing, eating, drinking and generally being merry with good friends. Bring on 2010!

© Minh for eatshowandtell, 2010. | Permalink | 19 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: pork, satay, Thai

As the years went on I noticed this huge batch of pho slowly becoming rarer and rarer at family events, I asked my mum why she didn’t make pho for these family gatherings any more and her answer was quite simple. She was too lazy to (very much a case of like mother like daughter).

Seeing Pho pop up as this month’s Daring Cooks challenge gave me a little thrill, I always thought that Pho would be an exhausting, time consuming exercise that would result in a sub-par results, luckily only one of these things were true! We were given the choice of Pho Ga (Chicken based stock) or Pho Tai (traditional beef stock with rare meat), I of course chose the beef option.

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Read the rest of Daring Cooks, Pho (702 words)

© Minh for eatshowandtell, 2009. | Permalink | 16 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: daring cooks, pho, recipe, Vietnamese

The Dosa is a South Indian style crepe traditionally made with ground rice and lentils, the Daring Cooks challenge was a little more similar to a pancake. In addition to the Dosa, a vegetable filling and coconut based sauce were also part of the Challenge. While I have nothing against Indian style cuisine, it’s not one that I find myself eating often and I found myself wondering how it would all turn out in the end.

Net Dosa

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Read the rest of Daring Cooks, Vegan Indian Dosas (1,034 words)

© Minh for eatshowandtell, 2009. | Permalink | 27 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: daring cooks, Daring Kitchen